February is the cruelest month

From the left, a Nauset Beach shack, Monomoy Island, Rock Harbor and Sammy the seagull

A Photo Essay By Walter Brooks

Anyone who has lived here a while knows that T. S. Eliott was wrong - February, not April, is the cruelest month, although this year January gave it a run for the money.

In fact, February serves no purpose beyond delaying summer for its intermidable four weeks. The only good thing about February is that it's the shortest month with only 28 short, miserable days except for Leap Year when February inflicts another day on us. Thank God that won't happen again until 2008.

A few presidents managed to arrive this month, Washington, Lincoln, Harrison and Regan, along with Rosa Parks, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Susan B. Anthony, Fred Chopin, Pierre Renoir, Levi (as in Jeans) Strauss, Hank Longfellow, my wife Patricia and youngest son Jay.

February also gives us Valentine's Day, a sometime thing at best. And Groundhog day.

It seemed like a really good time to remind you why you moved down here in the first place, thus the photos below.